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Former Test vice-captain Ian Healy says Andrew Symonds was “cooked” and hoped to be released from national duties so he could focus on part-time cricket and fishing.
Skipper Ricky Ponting believes Cricket Australia did all it could for Symonds before banishing the wayward all-rounder from the World Twenty20 squad over another alcohol-related incident on Thursday in London.
Healy says his fellow Queenslander might be happy now to play a short stint each year in the lucrative Indian Premier League Twenty20 tournament and pick up an English County contract, as long as their “team rules” weren’t too strict.
But the 33-year-old could also decide to retire from cricket altogether after the latest setback.
Australia’s star players were unable to play the full IPL season in April-May in South Africa because of national commitments with the one-day side in Dubai against Pakistan.
Symonds arrived in time to score 33 and take 2-18 for the Adam Gilchrist-led Deccan Chargers in the IPL final.
“The other issue is the issue of the team rules or a team code,” Healy told Radio 2KY on Friday.
“I guess the drink is influencing him there. He has always loved a drink and it may have turned into a problem.
“The other thing is he might just be sick (of it). He’s just cooked and tired of cricket and sort of wants to be dropped.
“I’m not sure whether Symmo wants to play cricket or be bound by contracts or be bound by the Cricket Australia structure.
“I sense that he might be seeking the freedom that IPL and maybe a County stint might offer him.
“Then he can the rest of the year in his tinnie (boat) and (drink) at the corner of the bar between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
“It’s an ongoing issue I imagine, alcohol, and the ability to say when you’ve had enough.
“He hasn’t mastered it yet.”
Healy said the Australian team did not take the decision lightly to impose such a severe sanction on a teammate.
“A punishment dished out by your teammates and peers is a lot more damaging personally than a Cricket Australia sanction,” he said.
“So this is bad in that he has let the national team down and teammates who were gearing up for a (Twenty20) World Cup.
“It was Andrew Symonds who gave it to Warnie in 2003 when Warnie had to leave the World Cup in South Africa for his drug indiscretion.
“And now it’s Andrew Symonds who has created a similar indiscretion and let a squad down.
“It’s damaging and not defendable as yet.
“Cricket either changes those team boundaries to accommodate him or they lose him. That might be the scenario.”
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